In order to conserve energy, automobiles are now being engineered to give improved gasoline mileage. This effort is of great urgency as a result of Federal regulations enacted which compel auto manufacturers to achieve prescribed gasoline mileage. These regulations are to conserve crude oil. In an effort to achieve the required mileage, new cars are down-sized and made much lighter. However, there are limits in this approach beyond which the cars will not accommodate a typical family.
Another way to improve fuel mileage is to reduce engine friction. The present invention is concerned with this latter approach.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,010 (Erickson et al) Nov. 13, 1990) relates to lubricant compositions and lubricant additives and to methods for producing lubricant additives with antifriction properties that contain vegetable oil and vegetable oil derivatives as lubricating agents. More specifically, this reference relates to wax esters of vegetable oil fatty acids, sulfurized vegetable oil triglycerides, sulfurized vegetable oil wax esters, vegetable oil triglycerides, phosphite adducts of vegetable oil triglycerides, and phosphite adducts of vegetable oil wax esters as lubricant additives in various combinations, and from various vegetable oil sources.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,179 (Souillard et al, Apr. 27, 1976) relates to a lubricating composition for two-stroke engines which comprises 90 to 97% by weight of a lubricating mixture comprising 15 to 80% by weight of a polymer selected from the group consisting of hydrogenated and non-hydrogenated polybutene, polyisobutylene and mixtures thereof, having a mean molecular weight ranging from 250 to 2,000 and 0.5 to 10% by weight of a triglyceride of an unsaturated aliphatic acid containing 18 carbon atoms, the remainder of said mixture being a lubricating oil, and 3 to 10% by weight of lubricating oil additives for two-stroke engines.
U.K. Patent Application GB 2,038,356 based on U.S. Ser. No. 970,699 of Dec. 18, 1978, published Jul. 23, 1980 assigned to Chevron Research Company relates to the fuel economy of an internal combustion engine that is improved by incorporating in the lubricating oil used to lubricate the crankcase of said engine of from 0.25 to 2 weight percent of a fatty acid ester of glycerol, such as glycerol mono-oleate or glycerol tallowate. The fatty acid ester can be added to lubricating oil to form a lubricating oil composition.